Never say never....

SarahSharm

Hi - I've been rattling around the Red Sea for a few years doing this and that and the other. The easiest way to introduce my conversion to rebreathers is with this article which I wrote for a local mag when I started in 2004:

Living in a Bubble Free World

It all began with a guy called John. Whilst I huddled next to the reef to avoid disturbing the circling Grey Reef Sharks of the Brother Islands, John was out there being circled. While all the orange Anthias shrunk further into the reef with every passing diver, they rushed out towards John with open fins. The difference was bubbles – or lack of them. John was diving on an Inspiration Rebreather and I was jealous!
As soon as I could, I started to learn about bubble-free diving. The theory was much more comprehensive than I expected and once my rusty brain cells had got over the initial shock, actually quite interesting! Humans only absorb about a fifth of the oxygen that we inhale with each breath. You can’t normally re-breathe your expired breath because this contains carbon dioxide. A rebreather allows us to efficiently re-use our expired oxygen by channeling it through a ‘scrubber canister’ (granules of calcium hydroxide) that removes the carbon dioxide. Because this is all circulated around a closed ‘loop’, it means that rebreathers are ‘bubble-free’.
My first experience on the rebreather was an intro-dive. I stuck my head underwater and promptly stood up again. Nervous? I was terrified! Once underwater, it was not what I expected at all. The breathing was very strange and I felt like an out-of control yellow juggernaut careering through the sea with arms and legs flailing. So much for gracefully gliding through the water while being greeted by the fish; they had all run away screaming! As a diver, it’s second nature to use your breathing to fine-tune buoyancy. On a rebreather, that just does not happen because the breathing ‘loop’ is closed. It was like learning to dive all over again with different rules - weird in the extreme! After a while I settled down a bit and sort of got the hang of it. I was ready to start my course.
My instructor was Aaron Bruce, a ‘Tek-Guru’ with years of experience in the UK and Red Sea. I had dived with him on many previous occasions and was more than happy to put my life in his hands. I spent the first few days learning equipment preparation and maintenance and practicing safety drills and buoyancy. A big source of entertainment was the fact that I could talk underwater and hear Aaron’s laughter and groans when I got things wrong.
On the fourth day, we set off for Shark Reef. I followed Aaron down the wall, set my buoyancy and tried to relax. The bubble-free view of divers jumping in above was a pretty cool sight. As they descended though, it was very, very noisy. The boats were noisy, the bubbles were noisy, and even the pistons in their regulators were noisy. All the fish were visibly melting into the blue. As the divers left, we watched the ‘real’ world materialize again. Barracuda spiraled in, a blacktip shark shot past Aaron and proceeded to catch his dinner, a giant hammerhead cruised in to the plateau and back out to circle in the blue, a marlin was seen in a beautiful snapshot; silhouetted for a moment against the sun as it rushed through the fusiliers, two manta rays gracefully glided past Shark Reef – so close to each other they looked as if they were holding hands. All this happened during three hours of diving!
What a revelation as I suddenly realized that what I had been seeing for all these years as a scuba diver, was all false. Now, on a rebreather, I was seeing what REALLY happens underwater when we’re not there! It was absolutely mind-blowing!
Now I’m re-discovering all the dive sites through bubble-free eyes! Imagine swimming through the schooling Banner fish at Ras Kati and almost having to push them out of the way; sitting in the sand at White Knight while watching garden eels come up around you; having the big rays of Naama Bay happily dig for their dinners, completely oblivious to your presence. Chilling at Temple one afternoon, I watched a manta ray coolly glide in from the blue. Circling above me, it gently lowered its wingtip so close that I had to duck. WARNING: rebreather diving is addictive!
I am still wearing an imaginary ‘L-plate’ on my back, which will stay there for the foreseeable future. Just like scuba diving, over-confidence and complacency on a rebreather are dangerous things. If you like leaping in the water from sundeck to sea while jumping into your dive-kit on the way, or if your idea of kit washing is to take it for another dive, then rebreather diving is definitely not for you. The preparation and maintenance is a bit labour intensive but speeds up with practice and the fantastic diving more than makes up for it. After 100 hours of diving on the unit you can take an additional course to use it with Trimix. I’m not in any rush to see the bottom of Thomas Canyon at the moment; I’m having far too much fun looking at fish!
If you see a woman wearing a funny looking yellow box on her back, a couple of black hoover hoses sticking out of her mouth and a silly grin on her face, that’ll be me! Give me a wave, but please keep your noise and your bubbles at a distance - you’ll disturb the fish!

Well - I know I said scuba was for work, bubble-free was for days off but never say never as the saying goes and I soon saw the light; crossing over to the dark side to join the Devils' Advocate Tekstreme Team in Sharm el Sheikh, just proving that you can combine work and play.........

caveseeker7

Rebreather diver ... photographer ... ... you forgot the important part,
Sarah, is that guy named John still in the picture?

Great intro, welcome to Rebreather World.

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Cheers
Stefan



"It is still a good day if you are on the green side of the grass!

Su amigo Roberto!"

Sponsor Lou in Race For Life!

mortenkjerulff

Hi Sarah.

Welcome to Rebreather World, and thank you for the guiding in Sharm and the pictures (Richie says he has just send them to me, so I should have them any time soon).

Best regards
Morten

Gill Envy

great story (and have some green), thanks for sharing and welcome to rebreather world! If only i had made the switch before i did the thistlegorm and ras mohamid...i'm sooo jealous!

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Gill Envy

...Because I wasn't born with gills!
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SarahSharm

Hey...don't go spreading rumours now!....I was the dive guide; John was a bloke on holiday on the liveaboard with his inspiration and wife!!!!!!!

SarahSharm

Hi Morten...hope you like the photos. Thanks for a great weeks diving.